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July 04 Just When I thought the rain had disappeared, it came back to blight the whole weekend. Oh joy. No, really. July 03 Depressingly AddictiveI'm only on page 46 of The End Of Food yet I'm being battered with so many facts and figures about the food industry, that there's a very real likelihood I'll never buy or eat another packaged food product again. OK, that's impossible to do. IMPOSSIBLE.
Still, I'm discovering some pretty miserable things connected to food. I thought Fast Food Nation was depressing (but addictive) reading. The End of Food is making me want to reach for a heavy dosage of Proziac and possibly mainline.
For example, demand for grape favours by makers of soda, gum, candy and other foods now exceeds the quantity of natural grape flavour produced naturally - that is actual grapes - by a factor of 10 to 1.
You know when the price of oil falls, petrol at the pump will fall. Well, the food industry doesn't operate like that. When there was a grain glut in the 80's, associated food product manufacturers increased their prices.
It's disturbing reading and I'm only on page 46. I've got 300 more pages to go. Seriously, every page gives a fact about the food industry that's either sickening, astonishing, jaw-slackening at the audacity of food companies and modern consumerism.
Us consumers have never had it so good, bad and ugly. July 02 Lantau On a blistering hot day we venture forth to Pier 6 in Central and the ferry to Mui O on Lantau. For me this was the first time I'd visited for a good 11 years. Slow ferry (HK$31 deluxe class) opted for because there's a nice fresh breeze and it's not so claustrophobic as the fast version. Quite a pleasant trip and only a little bit of rolling about. Lovely clear day and a chance to see the new (waste of money) Stonecutters Bridge which looks spectacular. I even saw Disney in the distance. Landing at Mui O we went a short little way to a pub called The China Bear. Great service, great food and all reasonably priced. Then a short wait at the taxi stop (truly sweltering heat) to catch a blue taxi (HK$46) to Cheung Sha Beach. The taxi stops at the top of a hill and there's a two-minute walk down until the beach. Beautiful sand stretching 3.2km, gentle waves, fresh air, surrounded by big hills, and totally peaceful. While the others went swimming, I beached - literally - myself on a dodgy chair on the sand. We got there about 4pm so the fierce heat experienced earlier was abated somewhat. There are a few restaurants on the beach plus some drinkie and ubiquitous instant noodle places. Lifeguards patrol, quite shallow water and there's a fantastic view out to sea. Instead of trekking back by taxi to the ferry, we decided to hop on a bus HK$12 I think) to Tung Chung - a new town built very near to HKIA. The journey only took 20 minutes up a fairly steep road that affords fantastic views of Cheung Sha Beach on one side, and on the other side, the airport and hills. Quite picturesque. There's a big bus terminus at Tung Chung and the usual shopping centre but populated by outlet shops (not cruddy shop units with clothes falling out of cardboard boxes, but real shops selling last season's clothing lines / products - Body Shop, Timberland, Mirabelle, K-Swiss, plus others. Very tasteful). Then MTR at Tung Chung and back in Central about 30 minutes later (HK$20).    OrbitalThe Box.
Cryptic? Yes. July 01 The Hunger I'm steeling myself to read another book about how the food companies have changed the way in which produce is grown, picked, slaughtered, distributed. After reading Fast Food Nation (not a very good film adaptation although the beef processing plant scenes were truly awful) a few years ago, it put me off from eating fast food for a good three months or so. Worth reading just once to learn where the food and drinks we consume actually come from, what's natural and what isn't, what the food companies say when they mean something else. Truly shocking insights unveiled. June 30 Bird Strike!Another bird has committed suicide by launching itself at full pelt at my windows. I discovered the grey-furred bird under a bucket this morning. I don't know who put the bucket there but that's the second birdstrike in three months. June 29 Help Needed Missing: 1 weekend. Last seen on Saturday morning at 8.30am. Any information on the whereabouts of the last 39.5 hours will be greatly received. June 28 FoodyIn the US, 56,000 new food products were introduced between 2002 and 2006. Only 7 percent were in the healthy category. June 27 Hills After a break of three weeks, I'll be out on the hills in a couple of hours. Last time was in 30 C degree heat. This time we'll be rambling on sodden undergrowth after a T3 warning. Should be a mosquito-biting affair. I awoke at 5am in order to get fully prepared. Seems like the insomnia has returned again. UPDATE: This time just on a 6Km trail near where I live. Lots of bushes, trees, mud, puddles, steps, spiders, horizontal rain, strong aroma from the landfill - we were all soaked within five minutes as we made our slip-sliding way. Great walking weather. Managed to total myself twice going down the steps. Full package of rain, lightening, and cracking thunder. June 25 Two Buggeration. Two years here and still waiting for my book deal. How long do I have to wait? Singapore Wins! At the risk of being arrested by heavily armed police and unceremoniously dumped out of the country, I declare Singapore the winner in variety and access to wonderful food. Sorry, Hong Kong, your dim sum may be the best but there's no way HK will ever match Singapore's food presentation, hygiene and variety. Sorry and all that. Singapore certainly has a fixation with food. It's like all the taxi drivers have been brainwashed to extol the virtues of food over anything else. Take this exchange for example: Taxi Driver: Hello sir, where are you going? Monst (for it is I): M Hotel, CBD TD: Good food Monst: What? TD: Good food, sir. Monst: Really? TD: Yes sir Or this one: Monst: (to pass the time of another dull taxi journey) I'm thinking of going to the National Museum TD: Really? Monst: Yes, I've done most of the tourist things before and want to go because of the fantastic building. Is there anything I should see there? TD: Hmmm. There's a great restaurant there. Monst: Really? TD: Yes, sir. Total food fascination. The food courts totally piss all over Hong Kong. Just well laid out, inviting food, reasonably priced, temptation personified - very few food courts in Hong Kong compare favourably with Singapore. The food stalls are also appealing. Actually, Singapore is just totally dangerous - dangerous because of the food on offer and I can't resist eating. Fortunately my weighing scales are broken so I can eat what I want with no fear (surely some mistake - ed) June 19 Tanriffic TripeI'm visiting a country* where I made the dreadful mistake of purchasing this tripe in 2004. I play it every so often to remind myself what a rubbish choice I made.
June 18 Massage SillinessI'm pleased to announce the opening of a new upmarket massage lounge / fung shui advisory centre located in my store room. Priced competitively and having undergone expensive redecoration, the VIP lounge is now open for bookings.
Prices start at HK$700 million per consultation. I believe that there will be plenty of takers if this story is anything to go by.
Only in Hong Kong. June 17 Sunny Days are here again. Sweltering. Yeah! Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care! June 16 Macau - Buildings This time around Macau was much more enjoyable. Last time I found the amount of construction going on was just overwhelming. Fast forward 14 months and while there's still mucho building work still going on (especially on Taipa), there's not so much to trip over. Yet the buildings are tremendously ugly. The desire to build money-collecting faciliites as fast as possible, forced any hint of creativity straight out of the window. Seriously, not one of the new casinos has anything remotely interesting design-wise in my opinion (The Venetian is the exception). The MGM Grand is a fine example. Made up of three giant rectangular blocks positioned to look like a stack of dice but the windows are decidely kitsch with gold, silver and copper respectively wrapped around each separate block. There is a massive gold lion outside but overall, another missed opportunity on the eye-appeal front. Over in Taipa, the giant mixed development named The City of Dreams is more or less finished. Three hotels occupy this site; Hyatt, Crown and Hard Rock. Just a mega but ultimately tremendously ugly construction when compared to the Venetian across the road. There's another truly ginormous development that looks around 60% complete and that's the Galaxy sitting on acres and acres of land. Again, creativity out the window and two identical mega hotels being built dressed in a pallid white and dirty yellow colour scheme. Inside On the outside, grosse but inside however, every effort (mostly) has been made to keep people inside. MGM Grand just past the reception area has a large 'outdoor' area covered in something like an acre of glass with a Portuguese piazza complete with mosaic tiles and a facade. Cafes, restaurants and a champagne bar are found here. Fountains and places to sit too. The entrances to the casino are quite well-hidden. MGM's casino in Las Vegas features real white tigers prowling around an enclosure on the casino floor. I was expecting the same for the Macau version but no such luck and is fairly dull in comparison. Entering the City of Dreams and one sees a huge fish tank with water running down the glass. In reality, this is a massive screen with images back-projected. This is the main meeting point and also where (it seems) fathers dump the kids on the wife while they go off and gamble little Billy's education fund. Up an escalator for an overhead view of the projection and lots of single parents with kids running about. COD (unfortunate acronym. Or not.) needs more places offering entertainment to the little people methinks. At least the Venetian offers the Qube - an area where kids can be dropped off in a supervised area leaving the parents to go and 'enjoy' themeselves. MGM, COD, The Venetian all feature a string of branded stores that presumably everyone rushes to once they've won large on the tables. Well, no-one was winning because these stores were mostly empty. Perhaps it was lunchtime. Or quaint traditionalism of not shopping in upmarket boutiques on the Sabbath. Who knows? June 15 The Bubble A 4D experience awaits at the City of Dreams (terrible name). A free attraction and a chance to take an animated trip to the sea underworld. Go and see The Bubble. While the show only lasts 15 minutes, it was so different, so new, I can't compare it to anything I've ever seen before. June 14 Glassy Eyed Ever since I saw Chuli blown glass art pieces nestled amongst fauna and flora in Kew Gardens back in 2006, I've been on the lookout for more examples. And over in MGM Macau there's a few breathtaking examples including an elaborate glass sculpture in the Chuli gallery. I'm not even sure if I'm spelling this right and can't find much on the Web. All I can say is that the glass is blown to create intricate pieces in a mixture of colours. Here's an example from a little research. June 13 Mackers Annual trip to Macau. Full report of Asia's concrete and gambling hub coming soon! *cue scenes of people scrambling* |
For when I get marooned
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